TORONTO  Alex Ovechkin scored
the 650th goal of his career and Braden Holtby made 40 saves
as the Washington Capitals defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs
3-2 on Thursday night.

Tom Wilson had a goal and an
assist, and Brett Connolly also scored for Washington, which
won consecutive games for the first time in two weeks. Lars
Eller added two assists.

Andreas Johnsson and John
Tavares scored for Toronto. Frederik Andersen made 25 stops.

The Leafs, who were playing
at home for the first time since Feb. 6 following a
season-long six-game trip that ended with a 3-2-1 record,
entered 7-2-2 over their last 11, but had also dropped two
straight.

The Capitals, meanwhile, were
6-3-1 over their previous 10 after a 0-5-2 stretch that
culminated with a 6-3 loss at Scotiabank Arena on Jan. 23.

LIGHTNING 2, SABRES 1

TAMPA, Fla. (AP)  Nikita
Kucherov became the fastest player to 100 points in a season
since Mario Lemieux, and he and Steven Stamkos scored in the
shootout to lift Tampa Bay.

Kucherov became the league's
first 100-point player this season with his 30th goal. He
got there in 62 games, one more than it took Lemieux in
1996-97.

Andrei Vasilevskiy had 29
saves and stopped both shootout attempts he faced. The
Lightning have won eight straight and earned points in 12 in
a row (10-0-2).

Rasmus Dahlin scored for
Buffalo, and Carter Hutton stopped 39 shots.

Kucherov is the first player
in Lightning franchise history to record multiple 100-point
seasons and is the seventh player in the past 20 years with
back-to-back such campaigns.

Brent Burns picked up his
12th of the season, and Evander Kane added a short-handed
goal for the Sharks, who beat Casey DeSmith three times in
the opening 14 minutes and kept the Penguins in check the
rest of the way to sweep the season series from the team
that edged them in six games in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final.

The Sharks have won eight of
10 overall and pulled within one point of Calgary for the
top spot in the Pacific Division.

DeSmith finished with 29
saves, but Pittsburgh stumbled out of the gate and never
recovered to lose for just the second time in six games.

HURRICANES 4, PANTHERS 3

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP)  Justin
Williams had two goals and an assist and Carolina rallied
for two goals down to beat Florida.

Nino Niederreiter had a goal
and an assist, and Justin Faulk also scored a goal Florida,
which has won seven of its last nine games. Peter Mrazek
made 27 saves.

Aleksander Barkov, Evgenii
Dadonov and Jonathan Huberdeau each had a goal and an assist
for the Panthers, whose three-game winning streak was
snapped. James Reimer stopped 21 shots in his fourth
consecutive start.

DEVILS 4, SENATORS 0

NEWARK, N.J. (AP)  Cory
Schneider made 30 saves in posting his first shutout since
November 2017 and New Jersey beat undermanned Ottawa in a
game in which both teams gave indications they were getting
ready to make trades in the next few days.

Travis Zajac, Steven Santini,
Kurtis Gabriel and Miles Wood scored for the Devils, who won
for the third time in four games.

Anders Nilsson had 27 saves
for the Senators, whose 22-33-5 record is the worst in the
NHL this season.

Galchenyuk used a sweeping
deke to get around a defender, faked a move behind the net
that fooled goalie Jacob Markstrom and stuffed the puck in
against the near post.

Jakob Chychrun and Lawson
Crouse also scored for Arizona, and Darcy Keumper had 30
saves. Adam Gaudette tied it late in the third period for
Vancouver. Bo Horvat also scored, and Markstrom stopped 35
shots.

WILD 4, RANGERS 1

NEW YORK (AP)  Zach Parise
had a goal and an assist, and Minnesota ended a five-game
skid with a win over New York.

Mikael Granlund and Jared
Spurgeon also scored and Jordan Greenway added an
empty-netter. Devan Dubnyk made 33 saves for the Wild, who
earned their first victory since Feb. 9 at New Jersey.

Despite their recent
struggles, the Wild are still in the race for one of the
final playoff spots in the Western Conference.

Pavel Buchnevich scored for
the Rangersm and Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves.

Rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi and
Tomas Tatar also scored for the Canadiens, who won their
second straight. Carey Price stopped 29 shots for his 25th
victory of the season.

Michael Raffl scored in the
third period for the Flyers, who have dropped two straight
after winning three in a row.

Flyers goalie Carter Hart
gave up three goals on nine shots before being pulled 10:33
into the game. It was the second straight game Hart was
yanked. Brian Elliott stopped 29 of 31 shots in relief.

PREDATORS 2, KINGS 1

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) 
Roman Josi had a goal and an assist as the Nashville topped
Los Angeles and moved atop the Central Division with its
third win in four games.

The Predators have 77 points,
one more than Winnipeg (76), though the Jets have three
games in hand on Nashville.

Kyle Turris scored for
Nashville, which also swept the season series with Los
Angeles. Goalie Pekka Rinne made 28 saves for the win.

Michael Amadio scored for the
Kings, who are 0-4-2 in losing their sixth straight.

STARS 5, BLUES 2

DALLAS (AP) Jamie Benn had
his first multi-goal game since early October and Dallas
ended St. Louis' franchise-record 11-game winning streak.

When Benn scored the game's
first goal 3:46 into the second period, the Blues trailed
for the first time since Feb. 5  a span of more than 517
minutes on the ice over 10 games.

Radek Faksa and Alexander
Radulov put Dallas up 3-0 with goals in a 65-second span
midway through the second period. Tyler Seguin also scored
for the Stars, who snapped a three-game losing streak in
which they were shut out twice. Anton Khudobin stopped 43
shots while starting his seventh consecutive game for the
Stars.